Bill Newlands has come a long way since flubbing the pronunciation of the word “zinfandel” early in his long career as an alcohol executive — an experience he can laugh about now.

“Our family knew nothing about wine. My parents would have a beer when they had spaghetti,” said Newlands, 59, who was recently named as Wine Enthusiast’s person of the year.

Come March 1, Newlands will take over as the new CEO of Constellation Brands, one of the most successful alcohol companies in the U.S. in recent years, particularly when it comes to beer. Constellation’s Chicago-based beer business — driven by Mexican imports like Modelo and Corona — makes up nearly two-thirds of the company’s total revenue, which amounted to more than $7.5 billion last fiscal year.

Constellation’s beers have far outpaced sales in the overall beer industry, but the company isn’t resting on its laurels. Earlier this year, Constellation launched Corona Premier, a lower-carb version of the flagship beer. Next year, it plans a national launch for Corona Refresca, a flavored malt beverage.

The company also has made recent high-profile investments in the burgeoning marijuana business. Earlier this year, Constellation spent $4 billion to increase its ownership stake in Canadian cannabis grower Canopy Growth Corp. to 38 percent. Constellation also owns wine brands such as The Prisoner, Robert Mondavi, Clos du Bois and Kim Crawford and spirits brands like Svedka vodka and Casa Noble tequila.

A former longtime wine executive, Newlands also oversaw Beam’s U.S. spirits business before the Japanese firm Suntory Holdings acquired the company in 2014.

Newlands, who lives in Winnetka with his wife and three kids, will work out of the Chicago office, though the company is headquartered in upstate New York. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: How do you sustain the growth Constellation’s beer business, specifically the Mexican imports, has seen in recent years?

A: Here’s the beauty of the beer business. The single biggest growth opportunity we still have is broadening our distribution. As good as it’s gone, we still have a lot of upside to broaden our reach. With strong brands, that’s a great scenario. When you think about something like Corona, in particular, there’s just tremendous strength in that brand.

Two, (you’ve) got Modelo, which is the singularly fastest-growing beer. It’s been up double digits now for 30 straight years. It’s a tremendous success story. It will probably pass Corona very shortly to be the No. 1 imported beer in the United States. And you have to realize the business today in Modelo is over 60 percent in the Hispanic community, so it really hasn’t become a mainstream beer per se, even though it’s grown like a weed.

And we’ve just tested and announced we’re going to take national next year Corona Refresca. It is nothing short of delicious. They leverage off that strong Corona franchise.

Q: Is there some risk to putting the Corona brand on a completely different kind of product?

A: We tested that extensively, as you can imagine. When people think of Corona, they think of the beach. They think of moments where refreshment is a big piece of what they’re rewarding themselves with. And therefore the idea of a refresca from Corona was very comfortable for people. But we assessed that very carefully because you don’t want to do things that could be denigrating to your core brand. And fortunately, consumers felt that, “Nope, this is totally in line with what I would expect from Corona.”

Q: Constellation has experienced some challenges with Ballast Point since acquiring it for $1 billion in 2015. Do you have any plans to do anything differently with the craft beer brand?

A: We went back and said, “Why did we buy this in the first place?” Well, we bought it because they made some of the very best beer. But concurrently with the deal, everything went hyperlocal. That created challenges for a lot of brands, and Ballast was one of them because Ballast had just started to expand outside of its core San Diego area. We decided trying to create some of that local presence — like we’ve done with the taproom here — was a good way to take the great beers we make at Ballast Point and try to extend them. The intent is not to just do taprooms. The intent is to introduce the brand to a market.

Q: Is the sweet spot for growth in the wine business the $15- to $20-per-bottle range?

A: There’s pretty good growth $15 and up. It used to be $10 and up was where the real growth was in the wine business.

Q: Anything new happening with Clos du Bois in terms of new product extensions or marketing?

A: Clos du Bois has been solid, but it hasn’t been on a growth trajectory like we would like to see. One of the things we’ve done this past year is we’ve introduced a lightly bubbled chardonnay. Refreshment is one of the biggest things that people are looking for. Very little has been done to create that refreshment value in wine. It’s early days, but we’re optimistic there is that interesting opportunity.

Q: You have a long background in wine. Is that where you see the largest opportunity to grow sales?

A: I would say the singularly biggest opportunity for upside we have is beer. Yes, there’s a lot of upside to wine. But when I look at our franchises in beers and now we’re doing some interesting innovation around it, I think beer has a tremendous runway for the future.

Q: Constellation has made a significant investment in the marijuana business. What do you see as the future for that business?

A: We were skeptical in the beginning, but then we began to understand that almost two-thirds of the U.S. population thinks that cannabis should be legal. Obviously, we don’t do anything in the United States at the moment because it’s not legal at the federal level. But two-thirds of the population thinks it should be. It’s probably going to be a $200 billion business worldwide in the next 10 to 15 years. Half of that probably in the U.S. and half of that probably outside the U.S. I would argue it’s one of those once-in-a-century opportunities to have a new business open up that probably won’t be seen again in most of our lifetimes.

Q: Looking into your crystal ball, when do you think marijuana will be legal at the federal level in the U.S?

A: I wish I knew the answer. What I would say is when you have something where two-thirds of the population believe something should be done — that tends to happen. It has proven to be a good business, and it’s a good tax opportunity for many states. And I think you’re going to see it. It’s a little silly that it sits at the same level of heroin and cocaine at the federal level. So it’s a matter of time, our hope is it’s a short time, and I think it will be.

Q: And a state like Illinois, with crushing pension debt, could use some new money.

A: People often ask, “Is this going to affect your current business?” And we say, “You do realize it’s probably a $50 billion business today; it’s just all under the table.” And that states (where it’s not legal) are not getting a cent out of that. This creates a tax opportunity on something that is already going on in a lot of places. And you get it aboveboard.